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I replied to your questions in the other thread too. There is no RS-Specific Battlements pack, but there are multiple ways to do it.

If you just want to buy one easy Addon to make sure you have Battlements everywhere they will possibly fit and that your Upgraded Drawbridge is tall enough, the Mega Battlements pack will do that for you. (It will also make sure all your walls are covered if you ever decided to break out all the towers, or it has enough extra Straight Battlements to extend your walls out 8 extra inches in both directions and cover everything.)

If you just want to cover everything as it stands with Battlements, then 1x Straight Battlements, 1x Corner Battlements, and 2x Transition Battlements packs would do the job. If you're buying the upgraded drawbridge, you'll need at least 1 plain level of City Builder stone walls above it for the Battlements to clear.

My current thoughts are that if you want to spend less than $1800 (unpainted) on the castle and large towers part of a pledge and don't care too much about stretch goal collecting, the Royal Stronghold offers a really nice "sampler pack" of all the major building elements and is a great buy.

Add back the equivalent of 2 sets of Stretch Goals (plus some extra perks) for $139, upgrade it to full Battlements for $95 and you've got yourself a really nice fortress.

If you really want to maximize stretch goals (although they don't offer core structural pieces) or plan on spending over $2000-2200, the custom builds start to take the lead with more parts for the $.

And if you are shipping internationally anywhere besides Canada, it's Royal Stronghold hands down. Even in Canada RS is cheaper, but the price difference is the least there.

Another interesting build to consider, if you like the Royal Stronghold but also want to be able to make something like the Count's Castle whenever you need something smaller. How does adding small towers to RS compare to expanding a pledge starting with Count's Castle? For fun, let's call this the Archduke's Castle build. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1RgGeK ... gVebuUTe8o

Both of these should let you make a 20x20" Citadel with either four 6" towers, four 4" towers, or any combination thereof, and have the other 4 towers standalone at the same time.

Pros:-4x Stretch Goals included
-No restrictive long walls used, so the base footprint can be anything from 12x12 to 20x20, or 16x24, 12x28, or some weird "L" shape, or ditch the back keep and make a projecting barbican in the front, etc.
-Still enough parts for a double thick wall across the back, with further 8x4 courtyard keep attached
-Add some tower bridges to those freestanding flanking towers you now have for total badassery

Cons:
-These are 4 story 6" towers vs 5 story on the RS
-Lacks the CBS building on top of the keep
-No Battlements at all included in this build
-Short some floors, need to fill in courtyard with dungeon/city/mountain floors or buy more floor packs
-No crenellations on the interior keep, that's up to you for whatever you want to build

I can handle those tradeoffs for 4 sets of stretch goals and a ton more build versatility than a Royal Stronghold or Grand Citadel based layout. This is definitely a custom builder's setup, for somebody who has some stock of CBS and likes to tinker. More to ponder.

geekjeff, thank you so much for this analysis! I hope the few RS-only pieces make it into an add-on pack, but so far I think the GC pledge with add-ons is a better value for all the extras. Your analysis is definitely helpful for me figuring out what I'm going to purchase in the Pledge Manager...

For me, right now the main competition with the Grand Citadel is a much smaller package of a few add-ons, Ramparts (for the gate and the stretch goals), and just using CBS, Sewers, and Dungeon tiles to make pseudo-castles. If a few thousand dollars unexpectedly fall into my lap this month, I'll definitely go for the bigger GC pledge. :-)

mcmonte wrote:As a Canadian backer looking to pick up a painted set the difference is absolutely staggering:

$2080 (Royal Stronghold) vs $2672 (Expert build).

I really hope the stretch goals show up either on their own as an add-on in the Pledge Manager, or in some sort of theme pack. I might ultimately get one of the mega Theme Packs -- it's the closest offering to the stretch goals but I'd really like the siege ladders, hooks, flags, banners, and gargoyles offered in the stretch goals instead of the runic/ necromancer theme packs.

Just a thought but you could work trades for some of these. I know I am getting stretch goals but won't need/want all the ladders, hooks, flags,& banners. Might really want gargoyles though.

I am still planning on a RS, but definitely want the siege ladders and grappling hooks too. In my case, the castle will primarily be used for wargaming and the DF siege ladders would rock.

OBTW, GW made an OOP LOTR Uruk-Hai Engineer set that came with 4 siege ladders that were designed to so that you could slip a slotta-base between the rungs. This works but is a bit unstable, but I think the DF solution will be more stable and work for a wider variety of minis.